Aggression and the general practitioner.

The growing concern over violence against health service staff is reflected in an increasing number of anecdotal reports in both the medical and the lay press describing violent incidents.`6 Family practitioner committees have recently started to gather information on the subject. The Health and Safety Commission has described some of the common factors in assaults against employees.4 These include difficulties patients experience in gaining access to medical help and disturbed personalities. Drugs and alcohol, job location, prolonged waiting, and working alone also contributed to the risk. The Department of Health and Social Services advisory committee on violence to staff emphasised the vulnerability of doctors when performing home visits.' It noted that general practitioners have no formal system for reporting violence and must personally identify and fund any initiatives to reduce risk. The only published study of violence towards general practitioners concerned doctors in five health authorities.6 In the year preceding the survey 0 5% of general practitioners had suffered major injuries and 0-5% minor injuries, 5% had been threatened with a weapon, and 24 9% had received verbal abuse. In this study we attempted to assess the extent of violence in a sample of urban practices.